A PROLIFIC criminal who burgled her neighbour's home then robbed a newsagent’s at knifepoint has been jailed for more than five years.

Knife-brandishing robber Shelley Anne Williams was punched in the face by a shop owner who thought she was a man behind her mask.

The two-faced thief also feigned sympathy for the neighbour whose home she had just ransacked for goods including wedding rings.

With 135 offences on her criminal record at the age of 33, Williams reached a new low with her latest two-week crime spree, a court heard.

She forced a patio door at the home of her next-door neighbour, on Sledmere Close, Billingham, then ransacked the home while the householder was at work.

She stole a television, computer, camera, jewellery and a handbag on September 29 last year.

That night she spoke to her neighbour on their driveway, told her she was sorry and offered help.

Some of the stolen items were found by police in Williams’ loft days later. Wedding rings and watches were among £2,500 of belongings which were never recovered.

The victim of the burglary was left feeling vulnerable and insecure.

While on police bail, Williams staged the armed robbery of Low Grange News in Billingham at about 8am on October 5.

Wearing black and with a balaclava, she suddenly pulled a knife from a rolled-up newspaper.

She repeatedly shouted at a cashier “Give us your ******* money” and swung the knife across the counter.

A schoolboy in the shop said: “He’s got a knife.”

The scared cashier ran into a store room, called police and left the shop as Williams shouted: “Open the ******* till.”

Williams ransacked the shop in a frantic search and fled with cash from the till, cigarettes, SIM cards and scratchcards, all worth almost £500.

Shop owner Balbir Singh chased her and caught her on Culloden Way before punching her in the mouth, causing the balaclava to come off.

The robber then pretended she had a gun-toting accomplice, shouting: “Shoot him, shoot him.” In fear, Mr Singh let her run away.

Days before these crimes, the courts gave her a chance with a suspended sentence – only for her to steal a mobile phone and purse from a handbag that day.

Williams, of Norton Avenue, Stockton, admitted the robbery and burglary. Her previous convictions – mostly for shoplifting – included another knifepoint robbery and a scam where she posed as a prostitute and undercover police officer to steal money from men.

Rod Hunt, defending, said: “This seems to be a new low in her life.

“Free of drugs, she’s articulate, pleasant and thoroughly ashamed of what she’s done.”

He said Williams offended while “not her own master” on drugs and at a low ebb.

Williams, previously an institutionalised “model prisoner”, made progress keeping out of trouble until her marriage broke down and she took up with an addict.

Judge Peter Bowers told her: “It’s obvious from your record that you have spasms when you take to drugs and to crime in a big way.

“This is by far the most serious series of offences you’ve committed.

“You’re not without intelligence. When you’re sober and clean, you can probably use prison to your advantage, and I hope you do.”

He jailed her for five-and-a-half years – three for the robbery, 18 months for the burglary and a year from the breached suspended sentence. He warned her she could be locked up indefinitely for any more violence.